1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a sheet cutting unit and a separation unit capable of separating a finished product and a waste portion cut by the sheet cutting unit. The sheet cutting unit and the separation unit are included in an image forming apparatus configured to produce a single sheet print product in a target size by cutting off the waste portion on a tailing end in a conveyance direction from the sheet on which an image is formed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses configured to produce a single sheet image-printed product can be roughly divided into the following categories: image forming apparatuses configured to form an image on a medium in a target size of a print product, and image forming apparatuses configured to form an image on a medium whose size is larger than a target size, and to produce a print product in the target size by cutting a waste portion therefrom.
The above described image forming apparatuses in the latter case in which the medium is cut after forming the image include large-scale image forming apparatuses capable of producing a single sheet finished product from a continuous sheet in a roll shape. In such a large-scale image forming apparatus, a sheet conveyance unit and a sheet cutting unit are installed, and a print product and a waste portion are separated inside the image forming apparatus.
In general, processing of cutting and separating a finished product (print product) and a waste portion is required to handle various sizes of the print products in the same image forming apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-237157 discusses a method for automatically cutting a waste portion of roll paper from a recording medium. In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-237157, the waste portion cut by a cutting unit freely drops into a container (storage unit) located just below the cutting unit via a guiding path.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-237157, because the storage unit collects the cut waste portion that drops freely, the degree of freedom in the arrangement of the storage unit may be limited. With this configuration, depending on an overall configuration of the image forming apparatus, the storage unit for the waste portion may not be located in a position that a user can easily access.